Esme Lewis
Esme Lewis | |
|---|---|
| Born | Caerau, Maesteg, U.K. |
| Other names | Esmé Lewis Morgan |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, composer, record producer, educator |
Esme Lewis, sometimes written as Esmé Lewis, was a Welsh singer. She was a member of the BBC Welsh Singers, and was regularly seen on the television program Gwlad y Gân from 1958 to 1964.
Early life and education[edit]
Lewis was born in Caerau, Maesteg.[1] She was performing music from early childhood. She won a Glamorgan Vocal Scholarship to further her musical studies, and graduated from University College, Cardiff, with honours.[2][3][4]
Career[edit]
Lewis won her first prize for singing as a three-year-old, and was first heard on BBC at the age of 8.[4] She won a gold medal at the National Eisteddfod, for a duet with Aldwyn Humphreys.[5] She was a soprano singer, and played guitar, harp and lute, while performing traditional and popular songs in both Welsh and English.[6][7] She performed at the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall. She was a frequent singer on the ITV program Gwlad y Gân from 1958 to 1964. In 1961, she presented an episode of Sprigyn o Rosmari, a BBC television series about Welsh folk music.[8] In 1976, she appeared on The Folk Club, on BBC Wales.[9] "I spend so much time entertaining other people that I hardly ever have time to get entertained myself," she told an interviewer in 1959.[4]
Lewis toured with other British and Irish folk musicians in Australia and New Zealand in 1966.[10] In the 1970s she was a senior lecturer at Cardiff College of Education,[3] and toured in the United States as a soloist with a Welsh men's choir.[11][12] She also composed songs and produced records.[3]
Recordings[edit]
- Welsh Folk Songs with Guitar (1952, with Grace G. Davies)[13]
- Folk Songs in Welsh (1965)
- Twelve Days of Christmas (1965, with Patrick Shuldham-Shaw)[14]
- Oats And Beans And Barley (1966, with Patrick Shuldham-Shaw and a children's choir)[15]
- Alawon Gwerin Cymru (1966)
- Songs of Wales (1969, with the Band of the Welsh Guards)
Personal life[edit]
Lewis married scholar Iwan James Morgan,[4] who died in 1966.[16] Her second husband was Dr. John Bradley Jones.[3]
References[edit]
- ^ "Star of Caerau". The Glamorgan Gazette. 1974-11-29. p. 7. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Honours for five persons". The Glamorgan Gazette. 1982-03-25. p. 10. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d "Awards for nurses trained at Maesteg hospital". The Glamorgan Gazette. 1974-02-22. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c d "Folk-singer won her first prize at 3!". Western Mail. 1959-11-18. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Ann's finally got to be head girl!". Wales Online. 2007-10-03. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
- ^ Esme Lewis, Discogs.
- ^ "An evening of musical magnificence". Pontypridd and Llantrisant Observer. 1967-10-13. p. 9. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Folk Music". Daily Post (Merseyside ed.). 1961-03-08. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Folk club singer". The Glamorgan Gazette. 1976-02-26. p. 10. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Esme Lewis in Folk-Song Festival". The Glamorgan Gazette. 1966-03-11. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Oliva, Mark (1975-03-06). "Wide concert variety available in Reno Sunday". Reno Gazette-Journal. p. 15. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Choir will sing here". The Times Standard. 1975-03-05. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Lewis, Esme (1952), Welsh Folk Songs (in Welsh), Internet Archive, His Master's Voice, retrieved 2024-03-29
- ^ Plant, David (2017). "Resources in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library: The Pat Shaw Archive". Folk Music Journal. 11 (2): 43. ISSN 0531-9684. JSTOR 44987621.
- ^ Patrick Shuldham-Shaw; Esme Lewis; The Choir Of Hampstead Garden Suburb Junior School (1966), Oats And Beans And Barley, Internet Archive, Argo, retrieved 2024-03-29
- ^ Jones, John Graham. "Morgan, Iwan James (1904 - 1966), extra-mural tutor and politician". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 2024-03-29.